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is azola a good floating plant for the planted aquarium? i am having a mix information about these, all along i thought azolas are good for sucking up extra nutrients from the water.

thank you so much for any response

Godbless

Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

I've never had any luck with it indoors. That being said, I do tend to snag it from outdoor areas and plonk it in. I bet it is good, people keep telling me it is good, but it seems to need more light than what standard fluros can provide from my experience. Thinking about it, I've never actually seen any in a tank. Well, I have, but it wasn't there the next time I visited.

I think I've been trying with A. pinnata, but not certain on that.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

thank you so much for the information, i just have this mix feeling because other people are saying that azola has a symbiotic relationship with blue-green algae but if i remember it right there are also some posts that suggests azola is also a good "absorbent" for excess nutrients in the water.

Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

hi there everyone,

this is just an update on my newly set up 25 gallon planted aquarium. Some of the plants are showing signs of life unfortunately i dont know their names but most of these plants were purchased from a reputable LFS called BIO-RESEARCH here in our country. Again, i am trying to experiment if i could do it without shelling a lot of dough because i don't have lots of it. Also, i am trying to see if the soil-less potting mix where i put in my land-based plants would work in planted aquariums. Most of these plants were purchased at a very reasonable price. I just setup this aquarium last September 18 and the aquarium i used is around 7 years old.

hardware:
3/4" soil-less potting mix
1/2" fine sand
1" beach sand
and a little bit of the usual aquarium pebbles
filters - none
lights- the ever faithful SUNSHINE

software
ferts-Tetra plant flora pride
food-dried bloodworms (i just feed 1x a day)

fishes
angel fish - 1
swordtails - 3
zebra danios - 4
fighting fish - 1
glass fish - 1
SAE - soon (3)
corydora - soon (2)

plants (i guess)
java moss
penny worth
jave fern
azola (floater) "actually i have another floater i just cant seem to remember the name

Just this morning i changed around 30% of the water and scrape some of the BGA starting to build up on the sides of the aquarium glass and im starting to notice some kind of brown algae on plants. One of the most fascinating to look especially when the sun is shining on my aquarium the plants seems to be pretty much pearling a lot especially the java moss, its so cute . I've also noticed that the fishes are mostly at the bottom of the tank so maybe that suggests i dont have a problem yet with oxygen?

take care now you all and Godbless



http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/IMG0038A.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/IMG0036A.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/IMG0035A.jpg





Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

Hi mujacko

I can't believe no one has commented on your tank yet?! It is definitely different. I like your assortment of plants & the different coloring. They seem to be doing well.

You feed bloodworms everyday? It seems I read they contain too much fat to feed everyday? I could be mistaken though. But still, I would vary their diet if that was all you're feeding.

And don't SAE'S get big & aggressive, along with not eating much algae when they get older? I could be mistaken on this too, it could be another algae eater I'm thinking of.

And of course most people would suggest you get more cories, as they are sociable & like to be groups of 6 or more. I don't mean to sound critical here, I'm just repeating things that I believe others would mention if they had seen this post.

There are a lot of past articles on algae on this site & how to get rid of it. You just go to "search" & type in whatever you want to know about.

Your other floater to me looks like duckweed. (the bigger stuff) I have some in my tank. I also have a few water lettuce plants, also floaters & suck up nitrates. I got mine free from a pond.

Yes, I would also think you don't have a problem with oxygen yet. But man! You sure are brave to take on such a task as a "natural tank"!
Fish, plants, natural light & no filter. Your balance between things sure is going to have to be good to keep that tank healthy I would think. What about a heater?

I sure wish you luck with this set up. I'm interested to see how it all comes along for you. I don't think I've heard of anyone on here yet that has done that? I sure wish other people would see this post & comment on it, but the title Azola won't bring many to look at it, I'm thinking. I'm interested in hearing what all they have to say about it. Once again I applaud your efforts in what you are trying to do here. So far it looks like it's working.
How long have you been keeping fish mujacko?

that is a pretty cool tank. it has that old school, let nature take its coarse feel to it. i much prefer those over those over groomed dutch and japanese aquariums. breathe of fresh air so to speak i would increase the number of glass fish as they are schooling fish, otherwise the rest is A ok actually you have given me inspiration for my 55g .......

good day to all!!!

@fish patty
thank you so much for compliments.I dont know what to say but I hope thank you will do.

I only feed my fishy very sparingly maybe twice a week. I guess the azola and the salvinia are as a source for them because i would usually see my fishfolks "munching" it. And yes, i have an assortment of feeds like the flakes, bloodworms and sinking pellets.

With regards to my algae eaters: i have otos (2); SAE (3) ; panda corys (1) and yes CAE (2). Only the CAEs gets to fight most of the time but i always see them munching on the glass.

Heaters: currently i guess i would not be needing it because the weather although its the wet season for us here, its still within the average heat.

keeping fishes: i've started keeping fishes since college but i was left for many years with only one tank where my snakehead was housed for 7 years.

@resle
thank you so much for the compliment, and to be an inspiration to others although i am a newbie in the planted aquarium, it is such an honor.


---but all the more i thank you folks for the kind-hearted compliments because it has somehow boosted my confidence to continue this hobby. I've been feeling down lately because i feel like nothing is happening with my aquarium. Honestly, the reasons i came up with these kind of set up, first and foremost i have very limited budget. So i have to find ways to minimize costs without hurting my already aching pocket. So anyway, here's an update of my aquariums

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/DSC01568.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/DSC01573.jpg
I am so happy to find out that most of my plants are beginning to really show signs of life. my indian fern is growing like crazy and its starting to come out of the water. My thai stricta seems to be also coming out of the water. My pennyworth has 3 new leaves at present. My stem plants are growing nicely and i guess i need to trim some and put it somewhere in the aquarium. My water lotus has already attached itself to the substrate.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/DSC01570.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/DSC01572.jpg
although this part is growing, there's some trimming and replacing to do. My angelfish is the boss even the new fighting fish is afraid of him/her.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc47/mujacko2002/DSC01571.jpg
so here's the last of pics. Most of the inhabitants were ready for the photofinish.
I'll keep you updated folks. I am open for any suggestion/advises.

Current maintenance:
ferts-tetraflora pride
aquavital for fishes
water change-at the most 3x a week


Thanks Godbless everyone.





Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

You feel like nothing is happening with your aquarium?
It's flourishing & about to grow out of the tank!

But you only feed twice a week? Hmmm I'm not sure what to say about that, as I'm no expert on fish feeding. But I've read several places that they should be fed twice a day, whatever amount they will eat in several minutes. I have a timer that I set for 2 min. & put a little in at a time till the timer goes off, cause I tend to overfeed if I'm not careful.

I don't know why you feed so sparingly, but if it's because of the cost, you can always supplement with table food. Just nothing fatty. I feed mine a little bit of chicken & some veggies, raw or cooked & a little bit of egg, scrambled or boiled & shrimp.

Another suggestion for a good floating plant is hornwort, as it helps oxygenate and clarify the water as well as keep algae growth to a minimum.

I'm a beginner myself, so I'm not sure what else to say. It looks like you have things under control, except I'm concerned with the SAE's & CAE's that you have. I don't see in this thread what size aquarium you have?